By Harem
Date: 21 March 2001

# Love at the Waffle House #

It was a Saturday when I received his first reply to my ad.
Being ill with a bad sinus cold, I hadn't checked my mail.
For no logical reason whatsoever, I got on the internet Sunday morning.
Despite the fact that I was feeling miserable, couldn't breathe
And had a pounding headache.

His writing was breathtakingly beautiful, he was a poet too.
Something about what he said struck me just the right way.
He had a way with words, a verbose craftsman.
Adept at melting a womans heart through melodious phrases.

He put his cell phone number in his note.
Hypnotically I called it, as if under some type of spell.
I left a message.

The pager went off , buzzing quietly in his pocket while in church.
He called me back almost immediately.
I was very surprised.
We spent almost the entire day Sunday, on the phone.
And on the internet, shooting poetry back and forth to each other.

Apologizing for my sick sounding voice..
He claimed it went through him like lightening.
Falling in love with my voice, with my poetry, with me.
He asked me to call him after work the next day.
I couldn't , because I had to go to a safety class after work.

The class lasted until 10pm.
When I got home, there were three messages on my voice mail
from him.
He was at the Waffle House, near where I lived.
I rarely meet the people who write to me, I felt so confused.
But something was driving me hard.... and so I went to meet him
in spite of it being so late.

It was crazy.... it was exciting..... it was spontaneous....
I don't know how I knew it, but I knew how I felt.....about him...
Even before I met him....... I knew.....
Pulling into the parking lot..... he was standing there
with his feet spread..... like a little soldier.......
Nothing I did with him that night was normal for me.....
Nothing.....

I waved my hand to him as I pulled in.
He looked puzzled.....
I didn't care..... I was just doing what an invisible force made me do.
When he walked toward the car.... I lowered the window..... smiled...
and said Hello......
He still looked puzzled..... or disappointed...... I couldn't tell.
Regardless...... I jumped out of the car........ and Bingo....

Kissed him right on the lips......
Again, and again...... three times.... real hard.......
Think I stunned him..... he looked stunned......

We went inside, where he had been waiting for hours.
Not knowing if I would show or refuse......
He couldn't drink his coffee..... spilling the sugar..... dropping the
spoon.
I was all smiles that night..... it just seemed right.......
I was on a fantasy trip for two........ and was high enough for both of
us....
High on Him..........

Everything he said hit me hard.......
Pouring attention and compliments and all the gooey stuff
All over me....
It was wonderful......
Pour some sugar on me................... and boy did he......
Holding  hands across the table like teenagers.....
Staring deeply into each others eyes.....
Mine dark green........... and his light brown..........
I can still feel it........

I began to Feel addiction setting in....very quickly.....
Enjoying every moment of it...... every second.....
Could have stuck a pin in me..... and it wouldn't have hurt......
He was coursing thru my veins, and I wanted more.....
more, More, MORE, ...MORE.....MORE....

and thats just what he gave me....

He fed me every line that all women want to hear,
about how beautiful I was, how he wanted me to come
live with him, or him with me... wanted me to pick a
date when we would marry... even insisting that he wanted
me to propose to him in front of two witnesses...
how I was what he had been looking for all his life....
How I was so different from any other woman he had ever met.
How they were all just pussy... but I was so much more.
He told me that he was madly in love with me, over and over
for days. How positive he was that I was everything he ever
wanted , hoped for, and prayed for.
How I filled all his desires and then some.

The night drifted into days.....
The days melted into a week......
I had hoped for a lifetime......
Or at least MORE.....

It ended in seven days.....
as suddenly and abruptly as it had started.....

Declaring his love for me and desire to marry within a day or two....
Was wonderful, exhilirating, and scarey...
How could anyone love me ???
Ever.......?
But more so....... how could he love me so soon ????

By the end of the week, I began to take him seriously......
Inviting him to meet my grown children.
They threw a big party for the occasion.
Ham, chicken casserole, veggies and all the fixins.
Sheet cake, punch, coffee..... they had it all.....
I was so excited.......
He made me feel so special..... so good......

With him that week, I was Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty...
all at the same time.....
He brought the crystal shoe to me.... and it fit.... perfectly.....
Awoken from a deep sleep by the warm taste of his sensual kisses.
I was so attracted to him..... inside and out......
I still get chills when I think of his arms and chest against me
and around me....

He was under my skin., in my mind.... and slowly seeping into my heart.
And there was the word that killed us...... "SLOWLY"
It was just too slow for him.....
And just to fast for me.....
And never the twain shall meet..

Because I would not tell him that I loved him
And I needed more time…
It was  taken by him.... as an indication
that it would never happen.....
It became like a self fulfilling  prophecy.....

With the fear of being fired…..
He quit ……

I came home and found my stuff dumped on my front steps.
In the rain.......
Like  my tears .......... falling on deaf ears
Upon a heart that had once been open to me....
But now was closed.....
Closed and shut tight........

Unwilling to talk about it.......
Deafening silence ensued...... no messages, no notes, no poetry...
No phone calls..... Nothing......

The days swam to weeks which flowed onward.....
And WHAT was I left with.?..... from this lover...... who had measured my
finger with tenderness just weeks before, for the ring , I never got.
Whose Valentine's gift to me on the day before Valentine’s day
Was to dump my belongings, like trash on my door step.
I wonder who is wearing the Pearl necklace he had strung for me.
The surprise Valentine necklace, that I never got.....

My warm jacket that I had to beg for, and wait two weeks to get.
Because he was already off with a new  lover....

So  What did he leave me with.  ?

Knowledge
Discernment
Reality
Lessons

Never listen to words..... they are only sounds in the air......
I will know true love when I see it...... Not when I hear it.....
He is not the first, nor will he be the last to tell me he loves me
And it will be only  WORDS.





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